Henry Lytton Cobbold, wife Martha, Sonisphere Festival director Stuart Galbraith and John Jackson

RAMMSTEIN’S explosive headline slot at this year’s Sonisphere Festival will go down in Knebworth House rock history.

That’s the opinion of Henry Lytton Cobbold, who lives in the gothic stately home.

He feels Rammstein’s over-the-top production on the first night of Sonisphere 2010 will enter Knebworth folklore, just like Led Zeppelin’s seminal 1979 concert and Queen’s final live performance with flamboyant frontman Freddie Mercury at the helm in 1986.

The German industrial metallers unleashed an astonishing 22 tonnes of pyrotechnics into the Knebworth sky on the Saturday night.

Henry said: “We like breaking records at Knebworth and that was a record amount of pyrotechnics.”

Despite singing almost entirely in German, more than 50,000 metal fans watched transfixed as Till Lindemann’s Teutonic rockers took to the UK festival stage for the first time.

The six-piece’s elaborate set was transported to Knebworth in nine articulated lorries and was one of the reasons why the huge Apollo stage wasn’t used on the Friday night.

Having grown up with huge concerts in his back garden, Henry is in a perfect position to judge the Berliners’ historic performance.

Speaking at a Sonisphere press conference before Iron Maiden had taken to the stage, he said: “From Knebworth’s perspective it’s been another classic weekend.

“It’s clearly going to be one of those weekends that in 10 years’ time they will be talking about in the same way we talk about Led Zeppelin in 1979 and Queen in 1986.

“It has been an absolutely brilliant weekend and we are thrilled that it’s going to become part of the Knebworth legend.”

He added: “I can’t wait for next year!”

Sonisphere Festival mastermind Stuart Galbraith also hailed Rammstein’s display of fire, flames and special effects.

The veteran rock promoter said: “Rammstein are a phenomenon. They are absolutely unique, aren’t they? The scale of their show, the presentation of their show... and the fact I really like about them is that they don’t take themselves too seriously.”

Alice Cooper headlined the first night of this year’s festival, with heavy metal legends Iron Maiden bringing proceedings to an epic conclusion on the Sunday.

On the back of their Sonisphere appearance, Iron Maiden’s new album The Final Frontier entered the UK charts at number one last weekend.

Sonisphere will return to Knebworth next July.